Photo: Jane Gitschier, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons²²

Sean B. Carroll

American evolutionary developmental biologist (born 1960)

Sean Brendan Carroll (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and professor emeritus of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Sean B. Carroll (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Sep 17, 1960.¹

About

His studies focus on the evolution of cis-regulatory elements in the regulation of gene expression in the context of biological development, using Drosophila as a model system. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society (2007), of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for Advancement of Science. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Carroll has received the Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Lewis Thomas Prize at Rockefeller University. He has produced Emmy-winning films The Farthest and The Serengeti Rules, as well as the Oscar-nominated film All That Breathes.

From Wikipedia’s article on Sean B. Carroll, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.²

Companies

Howard Hughes Medical InstituteVice president²¹

Early life and education

1977 to 1979Washington University in St. Louis Bachelor of Arts^{3 4}
1979 to 1983Tufts University School of Medicine Doctor of Philosophy^{3 5}
Date not recordedTufts University³
Date not recordedSt. Francis de Sales High School³
Date not recordedWashington University in St. Louis³

Career

Occupation: writer, molecular biologist, biologist, university teacher, researcher, geneticist.^{10 11}

Since 2018Worked at University of Maryland^{6 9}
Since 2010Worked at Howard Hughes Medical Institute^{6 8}
1987 to 2018Worked at University of Wisconsin–Madison^{6 7}
Date not recordedVice president, professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute⁶
Date not recordedWorked at University of Wisconsin–Madison⁶

Carroll has published extensively on evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo"), studying the evolution of regulatory modules that specify body parts and patterns. Carroll is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1987, Carroll set up a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison "focused on understanding how genes get used in different ways to generate the diversity of form that we see". The Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology lists Carroll's interests as "Genetic control of body pattern in fruit flies, butterflies, and other animals". Carroll's team has shown, in a series of papers, how the activation of genes during the embryonic stages of the Drosophila fruit fly controls the development of its wings. The team has been searching for the butterfly's counterparts of these genes.

In 2010, he was named vice-president for science education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2011, the HHMI launched a documentary film initiative to produce science features for television, to which Carroll was appointed as one of the executive producers. In 2012, Carroll founded HHMI Tangled Bank Studios. In 2012, a film produced by this studio called The Day the Mesozoic Died retraced the investigation that led to the discovery of the asteroid collision that triggered the mass extinction at the end of that Era. The film was introduced by Carroll at a National Teacher's Conference.

Carroll was an executive producer of The Farthest, a film about the Voyager program, which won the Emmy in 2018 for outstanding science and technology documentary. Carroll was an executive producer of the 2022 Oscar-nominated documentary All That Breathes, which won the best documentary award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Carroll is a proponent of the extended evolutionary synthesis.

Since 2013, Carroll has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.

From September 2009 to March 2013, he wrote a column for The New York Times called "Remarkable Creatures", where he discussed findings in animal evolution.

From Wikipedia’s article on Sean B. Carroll (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

BornSep 17, 1960, Toledo¹²
CitizenshipUnited States^{11 13}
ResidenceMadison¹⁴

Awards

2012Benjamin Franklin Medal^{15 19}
2008A.O. Kovalevsky Medal^{15 18}
2001Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science^{15 17}
Date not recordedFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^{15 16}
Date not recordedFellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry¹⁵

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

1
WikidataSean B. Carroll on Wikidata
2
WikipediaSean B. Carroll on Wikipedia
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WikidataSean B. Carroll: education, on Wikidata
4
Wikidataeducation, as reported by ORCID Public Data File 2020
5
Wikidataeducation, as reported by ORCID Public Data File 2020
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WikidataSean B. Carroll: Vice president, professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, on Wikidata
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WikidataWorked at University of Wisconsin–Madison, as reported by ORCID Public Data File 2020
8
WikidataWorked at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as reported by ORCID Public Data File 2020
9
WikidataWorked at University of Maryland, as reported by ORCID Public Data File 2020
10
WikidataSean B. Carroll: occupation, on Wikidata
11
Wikidataoccupation, as reported by V2 archive
12
WikidataSean B. Carroll: place of birth, on Wikidata
13
WikidataSean B. Carroll: citizenship, on Wikidata
14
WikidataSean B. Carroll: residence, on Wikidata
15
WikidataSean B. Carroll: award, on Wikidata
16
Wikidataaward, as reported
17
Wikidataaward, as reported
18
Wikidataaward, as reported
19
Wikidataaward, as reported
20
WikidataSean B. Carroll: Official website, on Wikidata
21
WikidataHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Vice president
22
Wikimedia CommonsSean B. Carroll photo by Jane Gitschier, CC BY 2.5